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. Again,
it is paradoxical-if the number series up to 10 is more of a real
thing and a Form than 10 itself. There is no generation of the
former as one thing, and there is of the latter. But they try to
work on the assumption that the series of numbers up to 10 is a
complete series. At least they generate the derivatives-e.g. the void,
proportion, the odd, and the others of this kind-within the decade.
For some things, e.g. movement and rest, good and bad, they assign
to the originative principles, and the others to the numbers. This
is why they identify the odd with 1; for if the odd implied 3 how
would 5 be odd? Again, spatial magnitudes and all such things are
explained without going beyond a definite number; e.g. the first,
the indivisible, line, then the 2 &c.; these entities also extend only
up to 10.
Again, if number can exist separately, one might ask which is
prior- 1, or 3 or 2? Inasmuch as the number is composite, 1 is prior,
but inasmuch as the universal and the form is prior, the number is
prior; for each of the units is part of the number as its matter,
and the number acts as form. And in a sense the right angle is prior
to the acute, because it is determinate and in virtue of its
definition; but in a sense the acute is prior, because it is a part
and the right angle is divided into acute angles. As matter, then, the
acute angle and the element and the unit are prior, but in respect
of the form and of the substance as expressed in the definition, the
right angle, and the whole consisting of the matter and the form,
are prior; for the concrete thing is nearer to the form and to what is
expressed in the definition, though in generation it is later
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